The 25 Hottest Kate Upton Pictures

(Because nothing says AMERICA more than this gallery, we are re-running it for the 4th. Happy birthday America. – editors)

Kate Upton is the hottest Sports Illustrated swimsuit model in many years. Upton rose to prominence in the last two years, buoyed by an awesome Twitter account that has plenty of behind the scenes hot pics. Kate got her start riding show horses as a young girl, and landed some huge modeling gigs pretty quickly once she was old enough, including Guess, SI, Garage, and Dooney & Bourke. Incredibly, she’s been deemed not fit for Victoria’s Secret:

“She’s like a Page 3 girl,” Neophitou said, referencing the busty, barely clad women featured in The Sun, a London tabloid. “She’s like a footballer’s wife, with the too-blond hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy.”

Thank God Victoria’s Secret isn’t the only game in town, because we pretty clearly need more Kate Upton in our lives.